Media

The following sections show a number of media entries for the PCL project, ranging from a visual history of the project to a list of research presentations given by various PCL developers. Please click on the title of each section to expand it.

A History of PCL

PCL became a first-class citizen project in March 2011, when Radu B. Rusu, while working as a Research Scientist at Willow Garage, decided to create a separate standalone initiative for 3D point cloud processing and host it under pointclouds.org. Some of the first algorithms that form the foundation of PCL today have been developed independently by many research groups around the world, and have been slowly transitioned from publications into code by the PCL community. For example, three of our current PCL developers (Nico, Radu and Zoltan) have worked together under the supervision of Prof. Michael Beetz at TUM in Germany on multiple 3D topics between 2005-2010, which led to a good understanding on how a project like PCL should be structured later on.

The video shown on the right side of the screen presents the history of the svn.pointclouds.org code repository from March 2011 until December 2011. The code base is represented as a graph with edges that represent directories, and nodes that represent files. The icons jumping around from one part of the graph to another represent PCL developers. The colors of each node are just meant to represent the type of information stored (C++ source file, documentation, etc).

The video exhibits perfectly the collaborative nature of the project with almost continuous 24/7 changes and code commits. PCL's success draws precisely from this: assembling a pool of smart and creative international developers, that come together with complementary skills, ideologies, and different working schedules. :)

Community Data Repositories

Last updated November 10, 2014

To facilitate the open testing of algorithms the PCL community recognizes the need for free to use data. As such a collection of open data sets can be found on the PCL SourceForge data repository, as well as the PCL GitHub data repository. The files in this repository are stored in the PCD format, which can be easily read using PCL tools.

In addition to the PCL repository there are many other data repositories containing free downloadable data (in various formats). The following is a list of such sites containing links to data that is free to use for educational work. We encourage everyone to please read each sites' licensing information for any data used and appropriately acknowledge the authors in any publications or derived work.

SpecTIR Hyperspectral Airborne Rochester Experiment
A collection of imagery using an airborne hyperspectral imager, a laser detection and ranging (LiDAR), and a high resolution multi-spectral imaging system over the Rochester, New York, area July 26 - 29, 2010.

Localization and Mapping

Barcelona Robot Lab Dataset
Contains over 12GB of data and is intended for use in mobile robotics and computer vision research. The area surveyed in this data set covers 10000 sq m of the UPC Nord Campus in Barcelona, and includes 3D point clouds, onboard robot imagery as well as imagery from a camera sensor network. Ground truth data is also provided.

Navigation Assistance for the Visually Impaired, NAVI (University of Zaragoza)
The group provides varied datasets containing RGB-D data with the goal to establish a benchmark for the evaluation of systems performing NAVI (Navigation Assistance for the Visually Impaired) based on RGB-D devices. The datasets contain color and depth data generated using an Asus XtionPro Live camera in different indoor scenarios. Calibration data and information is included.

Navlab SLAMMOT Dataset
Contains data collected from the Navlab11 testbed. There are three loops through an urban environment with SICK, pose and visual data.

NAVVIS Indoor Dataset
LIDAR scans of the interiors of the corridors of the TU Munich main campus, acquired slice-by-slice by a mapping trolley and aggregated into a big point cloud. The site also includes registered imagery, camera calibration, occupancy grid maps and more.

LidarData.com
Large database of aerial lidar. Data sets must be ordered and may not be free.

Miljøministeriet Geodatastyrelsen
Large database of aerial lidar of Denmark. Select "(DHM) Danmarks Højdemodel" under Korttype (Denmark Elevation Model under Map Type) to view the available surfaces, level sets and point clouds. Registration is free and data can be downloaded using registered accounts.

DielmoOpenLiDAR
DielmoOpenLiDAR is an open source software with GNU GPL license based in gvSIG for the management of LiDAR data. It allows access, visualization and analysis of the original LiDAR data.

Vision and Mobile Robotics Laboratory
Includes a Mesh Toolbox for manipulating triangular surface meshes (smoothing, registering, etc). Also, source is available for object detection, modeling and tracking as well as stereo-lidar fusion.

Events

The following is a list of past and present events organized by the PCL development team.